Word Origin & History

"using such language as only the licence of a buffoon can warrant" [Johnson], 1570s, from scurrile "coarsely joking" (c.1500, implied in scurrility), from Latin scurrilis "buffoonlike," from scurra "fashionable city idler, man-about-town," later "buffoon." According to Klein, "an Etruscan loan-word." Related: Scurrilously; scurrilousness.

Example Sentences for scurrilous

Well, of course you know, and I know, that they're scurrilous lies; but just how will you stop them?

I stood aghast at this scurrilous address, the like of which I had never yet heard.

Your uncle, who heard about it at the club, says it is scurrilous.

His paper was not wholly the sort of scurrilous organ it has been shown to be.

In Grundtvig, the taunting degenerates into a scurrilous tirade.

This fellow writes in the most scurrilous newspapers; you have told me so yourself.

His portrait had appeared in almost every scurrilous rag in the country.

They were indignant at the scurrilous attacks which were made upon them by Englishmen.

For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no excuse can be offered.

And a score of witticisms, some sharp, some scurrilous, were hurled at him.